Comments about ‘Hate crimes against the homeless remain a problem’

The supply increases the demand and the demand increases the supply. As we have
ever more welfare programs, there will always be ever more demand for it! As the
demand for more welfare increases the cry for more supply increases. That is why
we will never solve poverty or homelessness with government programs. I am not
advocating "hate" crimes (whatever that is) but isn't it
interesting that the problem never seems to go away, even with trillions of
welfare dollars we throw at the problem every year? Its like chewing on a very
tough steak, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger until it will eventually
choke you!

Hate crime laws are unconstitutional.We are supposed to have equal
protection under the law. Hate crime laws treat "protected classes"
differently than the general population.One purpose of the first amendment
is to prevent the government from punishing a person for their opinions and
beliefs. Hate crime laws provide for "enhanced penalties" for those who
commit crimes motivated by their beliefs.

This is flat out wrong and
unconstitutional.

People should be held accountable for what they do,
not what they think. All men deserve equal protection under the law regardless
of the so called "protected classes". This has no place in a classless
society.

Wow, a lot of ignorant comments about the homeless on here. There are just as
many homeless engineers, RN's, and teachers, as there are homeless
criminals. It's scary to think that good well-educated people can fall
through the cracks but they do through no fault of their own, and it can happen
to you. And when it does, you'll wake up and realize that we need to help
our brothers and sisters and stop judging them. That's the test though: who
is willing to put their hand in their pocket and pull out the cold-hard cash?
Some refuse to give unless it's through a charity, even when a starving man
sits right in front of them! Unless we have charity we can't be saved in
the Kingdom of God. Don't give cash to obvious alcoholics or drug addicts
but we can buy them a meal and steer them towards rehab or state hospitals.

@ Kellie. Have you actually ever meet a homeless engineer, RN or teacher? I
would like to meet them. What you will find is homeless drug addicts, alcoholics
or mentally ill people. No need to judge them, be cruel to them and yes, it is
compassionate to try to help them but sometimes they need to help themselves,
otherwise nothing changes.

@mountainman, chris, rock and DewI worked with the homeless in SL for 6
years. While certainly not the rule I did meet on occasion the homeless person
with advanced degrees. People become homeless for many reasons including the
ones you list but if you look at the research the most common reasons are job
loss (very often due to injury) and medical bills. The research also shows that
over 70% of the homeless work. The high profile people you see walking the
streets talking to themselves actually only represent a very small portion of
the homeless. There are some really great examples of how we can have a positive
effect on reducing homelessness (including long term homelessness) the Road
Home, a private nonprofit, is a great example of the difference that can be
made. The National Coalition for the Homeless actually has a great deal of
information and references to the research on their website for those that care
to learn the facts.

I've worked with countless Aerospace Engineers at
Boeing, ATK and MicroSoft who have been homeless at some time in their lives.

You guys tend to lump and sterotype everyone into your own worst
nightmare, thinking homelessness is a Life-Long situation.It
isn't.Sometimes it's for only a few days, maybe weeks or months
or possibly even years.But rarely, and I mean RARELY is homelessness a
chosen way of 80+ years of life.

And by reading most of your past
posts, I've noticed you make this same sort of false assumption
believing all Muslims are terrorists, all Democrats are evil, all
Republicans are honest, and all Mormons are Republicans.

I truly feel for the homeless for what ever reason they are there. Some by
choice but, many by no choice of their own. "But by the grace of God go
I."

But really Liberal it can be safely said that by reading
most of your posts,I've noticed you make this same sort of false
assumption believing all Tea Party members are terrorists, all Republicans are
evil, all Democrats are honest, and all historic Mormon, biblical, prophets and
general authorities of good standing are Socialist Marxists.

My
comment was exclusively about hate crimes. It did not mention, let alone judge
the homeless. It is very clear to me that hate crime laws violate the
constitution in multiple ways. That is all I was saying.

My heart
goes out to the homeless. Many just need a hand up and we should never tolerate
abusing these people. They are somebody's brother, sister, son or daughter.
They are sons and daughters of God.

I have worked at Boeing for 22
years and I have never met one single Engineer who was homeless. I think that
somebody is making things up as they go.